


Pyrovison

by Bubblegumgirl14



Category: Team Fortress 2
Genre: M/M, pyrovison
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-14
Updated: 2015-08-14
Packaged: 2018-04-14 16:21:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4571334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubblegumgirl14/pseuds/Bubblegumgirl14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Engineer finds a way to help the RED team understand Pyro</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

There was no doubt about the Spy’s mastery of disguises. His existence came with a fatal flaw though; flames would always reveal his position. Since learning this trick, the entire team had a new found respect for the Pyro. No one had seen him without his mask and it made some people curious.

“’e is probably ‘eavily scarred from all ze fire ‘e plays around with,” the RED Spy scoffed after it being mentioned.

“You can shut der clappe, or you can go see the BLU Medic next time to have your burns healed,” Medic snapped.

When the arguing started, Pyro had slunk away, feeling dejected by Spy’s comment. He doesn’t even get hurt by his teammate’s friendly fire so he had no reason to insult him.

The firebug’s sudden absence from the gathering had gone unnoticed by everyone except the Engineer. The recent discovery of ‘spy checking’ that everyone was calling it, had interested no one more than the tinkering Texan. The amount of damage enemy spies did to his buildings was heartbreaking. He _could_ care less about the about the personal attacks he received from Spies, but his little sentries meant more to him. He thought about persuading Pyro to take a defensive position to help deter and possibly kill any Spies that might try to sap his buildings. It could help him feel more appreciated as well.

Engie mumbled an excuse he had to get back to his workshop and left the group. He instead made a bee line for Pyro’s room. He knocked and waited but didn’t get an answer.

“Hey, Pyro? It’s me, Eng-”

The door suddenly opened, but only a crack as it was held back by a chain. Pyro just silently stared at his visitor from behind his mask.

“You startled me, heh. Look, don’t let Spy get ya down.” Engie started in a soothing tone.

Pyro’s head drooped but then he shrugged.

“The RED Spy’s not your enemy, the BLU one is. How about you come help me defend my sentries with that good ‘ol flamethrower of yours?” Engie grinned.

Pyro looked back up and nodded enthusiastically. Engie puffed out his chest in pride when he saw how happy he’d made the Pyro.

“See ya on the battlefield then!” Engie beamed.

Pyro muffled something that sounded similar and closed the door. Engier hummed to himself all the way back to his boiler room workshop. He made some alterations to the sentry and dispenser to make them a little more fireproof. It was simple enough that he was done by dinner time.

At the mess hall Engie was surprised to see Pyro actually sitting at one of the tables. Engie grabbed a tray of muck and sat right next to him. They were further away from everyone else that Pyro felt it was safe to do something he’d never done before.

“Thanks.”

Engineer nearly jumped out of his seat when he heard the clear but raspy voice beside him. He looked to his right by an inch and saw Pyro had slid his mask up to expose his brown lips.

“Y-yer welcome, I think?” Engineer stammered to almost a whisper.

“I’m finally useful and all Eiffel Tower can do is insult me. You came and made me feel better straight away.” Pyro whispered in an accent that Engie was familiar with.

“Well I- it was just a decent thing to do, yeah? And ya’ll were useful before; burning half a dozen fellas at once is pretty spectacular.”

The lips cracked into a smile, but not for long.

“Hey guys! Guys! Pyro’s got his mask off talking to hard hat!” Scout yelled.

The annoying kid parkoured over a table to get to them. Pyro forced his mask back over his mouth before the speedster reached them. The other mercs turns their heads in interest but weren’t as nosy and stayed seated. Pyro stood up and loomed a foot above Scout in the most intimidating way which was quite a feat from an emotionless mask. The smaller man raised his hands in defence and seemed glued to the floor in fear. Satisfied with his effective punishment, Pyro turned on his heel and stormed off. Engineer had half a mind to stay and scold Scout but he chose to run after Pyro.

-

“Pyro?” Engie called after knocking several times.

Still no answer; sound or movement wise. He hung around for a while, pacing in front of Pyro's door with heavy footsteps to let him know he was still there, then gave up and left.

By the 60 second setup time the whole RED team was focused on the upcoming battle for Dustbowl, stage 1. Last night’s kerfuffle was pretty much forgotten. Engineer left resupply first and beckoned Pyro to follow. He set up a teleporter entrance before continuing to the first cap. Grabbing more ammo for metal he put a dispenser hidden out of sight. Pyro stood near it out of fascination as he watched it deploy.

“Mind if you stand back from that, son? I need the metal for my building.” Engie said as casually and non commanding as he could to not upset Pyro.

Pyro stepped back, nodding. Engie collected just enough metal for a sentry and placed it on the first landing of the stairs. If anyone came through the door they’d be ambushed (it worked every time).

_‘Mission begins in 10 seconds’_

“So just run between the sentry and dispenser Spy checking and we should be good.” Engie said and gave Pyro a hi five just as the siren went off.

The plan worked for a long while as Pyro did his new job keeping Spies away from the Engineer’s buildings. The BLUs were getting slaughtered and had no luck getting anywhere near the first cap. Then a Demoman got smart and lobbed a direct hit on the sentry and injured Engineer badly. At the same time a Soldier aimed for the dispenser but Pyro deflected the rocket perfectly, killing him. Unfortunately a Spy slipped past the moment the firewall was lowered and simultaneously sapped the dispenser and backstabbed Pyro. The muffled screams of his fallen comrade caught Engineer off guard and he was finished off by a Scout, blasting him to pieces.

_‘The enemy has received additional time’_

When Engineer respawned, he saw Pyro sitting cross legged on a bench, apparently waiting for him as he looked up the moment he materialised.

“I’m so sorry!” he muffled, almost clear enough for Engie to understand.

“It’s alright, darlin’, you did the best you could. Now just follow me but step in and help out the others if they need it.” Engie clapped a hand on Pyro’s shoulder before moving out.

A well placed sentry kept the BLUs at bay and rockets at a deflectable distance. The tunnels leading to the last cap were littered with unlucky Spy corpses and a few other classes that had been caught in the fire.

The last control point was defended with ease until the time ran out. Whilst the rest of the REDs chased after the helpless BLUs back to their base, Pyro joined Engie at his smoking sentry.

“Job well done, partner.” Engie said as he offered up another hi five.

They did the taunt and Engie unceremoniously demolished his sentry and dispenser and headed back to their own base. Pyro was skipping alongside Engie, thrilled with their 2 man team work. The others arrived back shortly, with their guns slung over their shoulders and laughing and praising one another. Pyro was suddenly caught up in the praise and Engineer stood back like a proud parent.

“We’ve never held the first cap that strong for that long! You two were great!” Scout addressed Engie and Pyro with gusto.

“Thanks,” Pyro muffled.

-

That night in the mess hall Engie was unsurprised but a little sad that Pyro wasn’t there. He collected a tray of last night’s leftovers and left. He knocked on Pyro’s door and there was some sort of acknowledgement from inside. The door peeked open a crack like before then shut. Engie was about to take offense when the door clicked and reopened all the way. Pyro stood aside and beckoned Engineer inside. He stepped in and the door was locked beside him.

The room was surprisingly colourful. Child’s drawings covered the walls and every piece of furniture was slightly singed. There was a small table with a tray of half eaten food on it and one chair set up to it. Pyro pulled out a second fold out chair and gestured for his visitor to sit. Engineer sat down with his tray of food and Pyro followed, then pulled his mask up enough for his mouth to be exposed.

“Thanks for the company.” Pyro said as they ate.

“No worries,” Engie smiled, “You weren’t at dinner so I came looking for ya.”

“Why?”

It was strange; unless Pyro hadn’t heard him he’d already said why he had come. Then again, not exactly.

“You were my partner today and I really appreciated your help.” He explained.

“Thanks.” It seemed to be his favourite word.

They ate in silence until Pyro finished his meal first. He sat there, hands clasped together with his chin resting on them silently watching Engie. The Texan was a little unnerved but glad the other man couldn’t see his eyes and vice versa.

He was always afraid of mind readers though.

“Can you take your goggles off?” Pyro asked politely.

“I can, yeah, when I’m- oh, ya meant now didn’t ya?”

Pyro nodded eagerly. Engie thought that this might be how Pyro would trust him if he was going to take his entire mask off. He unclipped his goggles and set them down on the table. He blinked a few times to adjust to the light and then looked up at Pyro.

Pyro clapped his hands excitedly, “Your eyes are blue.” he remarked.

“They are? I thought they were gray.”

“No, they’re blue.”

“Can I see yours?” Engie blurted out.

Pyro’s knee-jerk reaction made him pull the mask back over his mouth and a stern ‘no’ was muffled.

“Sorry! I’m truly sorry!” Engie apologised, the regret in his eyes obvious.

Awkward silence fell between them. Engineer kept his eyes down, wishing he hadn’t of said what he did.

“No, I’m sorry,” Pyro suddenly said unmuffled, “You’re just as curious as everyone else. Only the Medic has seen my face.”

“Medic? Of course; when we were first drafted here he looked us all over and scanned us into the respawn system. Is that why he defended you that day when-”

“Sí. It was a nice gesture for señor Medic to do that.”

“I feel silly just realising your accent. You’re Spanish aren’t ya?”

“Mexican,” Pyro corrected, “But Spy’s right. I look like hell. I couldn’t help playing with the rainbows when I was younger. The laughter people make when it touches them never gets old though.”

Something in Engineer told him that he should have been unnerved. No one should refer to burning people alive as something joyful. They were all mercenaries here though. Someone not finding pleasure in killing men over and over again would be more eyebrow raising than Pyro’s confession.

“I’m sure if it’s anything you’re self conscious about, the doc can fix yer up.” Engie said casually.

Pyro shook his head, “I was scanned into the respawn system the way I am now. I can’t be ‘fixed’ like how your arm can’t be either.”

Engie flexed his robotic hand under his glove, “Heh yeah, but this does come in handy. Anyway, I guess I’ve overstayed my welcome,” he said and stood up.

“No, no, stay a little longer, please.”

Engie sat back down obediently.

“You’re not going to want to be ‘pardners’ with me when you see what I look like.” Pyro sighed.

“I don’t mind what you look like, darlin’. You just wear the mask so often people get curious.” Engie shrugged.

But before he could protest, Pyro peeled the mask off in one fell swoop. Pyro’s own harsh words for himself were true to an extent. His light brown skin was riddled with burnt flesh, scars and in some places had lost its pigmentation. His eyes stood out like a sore thumb; bold and green, they looked also childlike, which was strange on a grown man. To top it all off his head was covered in curly black hair that seemed impossible to fix under the mask.

“You look...wow.”

Engie couldn’t possibly fake the grin on his face. Pyro couldn’t believe the reaction from Engineer was anything other than fear or disgust.

“Thanks, I guess.”

“See ya on the battlefield tomorrow, partner.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Engineer finds a way to help the RED team understand Pyro

Months had passed since Pyro had trusted Engineer to be able to take his mask off in front of him. The anti-spy duo worked a treat on the battlefield. When attacking sentries weren’t on the BLU Spy’s agenda, Pyro joined the front lines with everyone else. Gradually Pyro had become a little braver and would eat in the mess hall with the other mercs but still never lifted his mask any higher than his lips. Scout never tried to bother Pyro again; he was utterly terrified of the man. Everyone on the whole had dropped the rumour that Pyro was an alien or robot but didn’t dare get acquainted with him unlike Engineer had.

Medic found it more difficult to get Pyro to remove his gear when trying to treat him. He swore that maybe Engineer should get a medical degree and become the pyromaniac's personal doctor. One evening after dinner, Medic strode over to Engie and Pyro’s section of the table and placed a large box that rattled between them.

“Make sure he takes these,” Medic instructed in a low voice.

“Er, sure, doc.” Engie said as the German left them then faced Pyro, “What are these for?”

“Nothing. Do not need them.” Pyro grumbled.

Engineer took a glance at the box and from the text he gathered it was meant to treat schizophrenia. He felt a sharp pang of sympathy for Pyro. He knew Pyro was in denial about his mental illness, but hopefully he would trust Engie more than Medic.

“Wanna hit the hay?” Engie suggested.

“Can we at yours?”

They sauntered off to Engie’s workshop after gulping down the last of their muck. In full content, Pyro took off his mask ad slumped down on his bed that Engie had built for his friend to stay in. Engie inspected the medicine box further and read aloud, “Take one after every meal, at least two a day. Hey Pyro, you take these with a glass of water or dry swallow?”

“I’m not taking them,” he complained, “People have deep voices and the rainbows turn to real fire. Everyone is screaming and not laughing!”

It took everything Engie had to not say _'but that’s how things really are'_ and instead turned to face the sink. He filled a cup with water and popped one of the pills out of the plastic onto a tissue. He placed both on an upturned box next to Pyro’s bed. Pyro stared at the two objects in disgust and rolled over to face the wall.

“Hey, come on now, if the doc says you should take it, he must know what’s good for ya.”

“He calls me crazy and that I’m not normal! So does everyone else. I hear what they call me. It’s worse when I take those!”

Engineer sighed, “Everyone needs to understand that you’re not ‘crazy’. It’s not right that they treat one of their teammates like this.”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do about it?”

A wild idea suddenly came to Engineer and he grinned at the thought of it, “I’ve got a plan, but don’t you go worrying about it. Wouldn’t balloonicorn already be asleep by now?”

“Mierda you’re right,” and Pyro was out like a light.

-

Engineer took the box of pills with him and headed to Medic’s surgery. As he expected, the doctor was awake and planning god knows what kind of experiments. He knocked on the open door and waited.

“Vhat is it? Oh Engineer I’m not surprised. Pyro’s still refusing the medication?”

“Sort of, but I have a better idea.”

“Oh really? Vhat could a man of machines know about medicine?”

“Well, you’re right there, doc, but I had an idea for an experiment for the both of us.”

“I’m listening.”

“These pills you prescribed Pyro, is there any way to reverse the effects so one could see what he sees?”

“Zhat my friend already exists; marijuana.” Medic laughed.

“No, I want the exact opposite effects of these,” Engie shoved the box angrily in Medic’s face.

“Alright fine, I’ll see vhat I can do.”

-

A week later Medic had developed the ‘Pyromind pill’. In the meantime, Engie had not pressured Pyro into taking his medication. He always placed a glass of water on his bedside table just as a reminder. He didn’t know whether it was right or wrong, but Engie always took the chance to acknowledge the things Pyro came up with. The balloonicorns that liked to keep him company seemed harmless enough.

It was during a fight that was going well for the REDs that Engineer decided to take the pill. Almost immediately the desert battlefield transformed into a lovely meadow. Green and purple grass with flowers growing everywhere. The shouting in the distance sounded like light hearted, high pitched laughter. An enemy Scout ran past the sentry and when shot, balloons and confetti spewed out. He fell over in a fit of giggles before going to sleep. A Soldier suffered a similar fate but was blown to bits containing a cog, wind up teeth and a balloon dog.

‘This is fine’ Engineer’s mind kept telling him, and he believed it. Then Pyro arrived carrying three trumpets welded together that blew rainbows when fired. For the first time Engie saw the balloonicorn hovering around Pyro’s shoulders and he waved hello.

“Spys haven’t been bothering me too much today,” Engie said, surprised by his high pitched voice.

“I’ll help out anyway, the team doesn’t really need me,” Pyro muffled, also noticeably more high pitched.

Pyro sat on top of the dispenser, spraying rainbows every so often to keep potential Spies at bay. The REDs defended the last point until time ran out. So did Engineer’s pill. A horrible feeling of dread came over him and he fell to his knees. Pyro shouted for Medic and he ran ahead of everyone else to see what the problem was. Medic knelt in front of Engineer, retched off his goggles and checked his eyes and knew straight away what was wrong. With a quick flick of the medigun, Enginer transitioned back to his right state of mind. The world around him fizzled back to what he was used to. As if to signify everything was back to normal, he unceremoniously threw up.

“What happened to him? Is he ok?” Pyro fretted, moving his mask up to his nose in his haste to speak unmuffled.

“He was on a little drug trip, nothing serious. I’m sure vhen he comes around he’ll tell you all about it, if he even remembers.” Medic said with an upturned nose.

Medic left Pyro cradling Engie just outside from resupply and continued heading back there himself. Pyro was kicking himself for not noticing any strange behaviour in his friend. Engineer had had his goggles on so Pyro couldn’t have seen the state he was in. Right now they were bloodshot; not even Pyro’s mind could think of something to replace it. Within a few minutes, Engie finally started to regain composure.

“Engie? Partner?” Pyro gasped in relief.

“Hey, Pyro darlin’, I just had an amazing experience...”

“Why you take drugs during battle?” Pyro was worried more than angry but Engie couldn’t see his eyes to tell.

“I can explain! You know that medicine doc wanted ya to take? I got him to reverse the effects and I took one.”

“So...you say what I usually see?” Pyro sounded ashamed.

“Eeyup. Even balloonicorn.”

“I saw you waving to her but I thought it was just luck as you hardly guess where she is usually.”

Engineer then realised maybe it had been bad to acknowledge Pyro’s imaginings. Pyro helped his partner to his feet and they returned to base in silence. Over dinner Engie tried to explain to Pyro his plan to get the other mercs to see what their pyrotechnician saw but he wouldn’t hear it.

“There’s no way you’d get seven other men to all take that pill! Medic definitely wouldn’t take it.”

“He has, though. He took it before me to test if his own creation would work.” Engineer reassured.

Pyro swore something in Spanish that Engie didn’t understand. Spy looked over in interest, being semi-fluent in multiple languages. He knew of Engineer’s drug taking but not what it was for. It infuriated him that the Texan was keeping something so quiet.

He only found out the day everyone else did. Engineer called the team to a meeting a few hours before the battle was to start. There was a crate sitting in the middle of the table with Engineer’s plan. Pyro sat closest to Engineer as usual but kept his mask fully on.

“I’ve got a special treat for you fellas that’ll help ya understand Pyro a bit better,” Engie started.

He pushed the lid off the crate and pulled out eight pairs of black goggles. He took one and gestured for the others to take a pair.

“Hey! Why’s this one only got one eye hole?” Scout whined at his.

“That’d be Demo’s, son.”

Demo snatched his custom made one from the boy’s hands and threw the bifocal one at him in return.

“They’re most effective when worn on the battlefield but if you get a headache just take ‘em off.” Engineer explained.

“What are we supposed to see with these contraptions?” Soldier asked, holding his out like a dead animal.

“You’ll find out. I promise you’ll enjoy it.” Engie grinned.

-

_‘Mission begins in 60 seconds’_

“Crikey! This ain’t Dustbowl!” Sniper exclaimed, being seconds out of resupply after Engineer.

The rest of the team followed, intrigued by the Aussie’s high pitched voice. They all exclaimed something similar as they explored the beautiful land on their way to the first cap. Not one harsh word had been said but that didn’t mean Pyro felt at ease yet. While the REDs stood ready, Pyro ran in front of them and everyone saw his flamethrower as the rainblower and even spotted his pet balloonicorn.

“Holy crap I want that weapon!” Scout gaped.

_‘3...2...1!’_

More teammates were surpised to see rainbows spew from the end of the welded trumpets. Then BLUs started dying and balloons and confetti flew everywhere. The enemy was a little put off, thinking the REDs had a new weapon at their disposal. They sent their Spy after Engineer directly. He snuck over to his position disguised as Scout.

“Yo, hard hat, my goggles ain’t working!” ‘Scout’ said.

“What’s wrong? Something not showing up properly?” Engineer asked.

As the Spy tried to think of what to say, behind him Engie saw another RED Scout run past and he immediately fired his pistol. When he realised it hurt him he aimed higher but the ‘Scout’ raised his arms and spoke like his true self.

“Shoot me all you like once I ask you something.”

“Fine, but make it quick.” Engie didn’t lower his gun.

“What are those goggles you REDs are wearing?”

“Nothing fancy. All they do is make you see things differently. You could take the plans to your Engineer if you want.”

“How thoughtf- ARGH!”

Pyro ran around the corner to Spy-check and killed the imposter Scout on the spot.

“Couldn’t you tell he was a Spy?” Pyro scolded.

“he had me convinced,” Engie lied and shrugged.

On the second try, BLU Spy made himself invisible, took the plans and fled. After a quick look over the plans, BLU Engineer scolded his Spy for wasting his time with a useless cosmetic; it had no advantage to them whatsoever.

But for the RED team they were enjoying the change of pace to battle and it unnerved the BLUs to hear them laugh a little more maniacal than usual. They successfully defended once again and ran after the BLUs one more time just to see more confetti. Pyro approached Engie – neither went after the BLUs – and started to thank him for doing this. Then Medic approached them.

“I’m not here to scold you, Herr Pyro.” He said when Pyro hid behind Engie, “Nein, I vanted to thank you and the Engineer for your contribution to science und of course this strange experience.”

It was a little hard to take the doctor seriously when he sounded like a chipmunk but Engie took his words with earnest.

“Well thanks, doc. I just wanted the other fellas to appreciate Pyro a bit more.”

“We sure do!” came Sniper’s voice.

Engie turned and saw the rest of the team was back and still had their goggles on. Spy then stepped forward and spoke.

“We were wrong about you, pyro,” Heavy nudged Spy in the back and he sighed, “ _I_ was wrong about you. Seeing through your eyes, literally, helped show a side to life that only Demoman’s probably seen. (Hey!) And thank _you_ Engineer, for taking the time to make this happen.”

“Thanks, Spy. You should probably also thank Medic, he-”

“I had no part of this,” Medic interrupted, “Now take your goggles off slowly and if you feel ill come to me before you throw up everywhere.” He instructed.

They all took their goggles off and only Scout felt sick, not knowing the meaning of ‘slowly’. Engie’s doubled as his usual welding goggles and as he took them off everyone’s stared; they’d never seen Engie’s eyes. As everyone crowded around and commented, (besides Scout who was doing his best to avoid Medic’s needle) Pyro stood back and smiled from under his mask. He’d been the first teammate that Engie had shown his eyes to. It was sappy, he knew that. The amount of attention Engineer had shown him over the past few months while else had taken him for a spy-checking monster was amazing. He still wasn’t going to take his mask off in front of everyone though. That was something he only trust Engineer with.


End file.
